How often have you come across a bloggy factbook, consisting of multiple articles with only a few sentences each? A wiki-style factbook allows you to condense a lot of information in only one factbook, and looks much more professional.

Wiki style factbooks are inspired from Wikipedia articles and other wikias. In this guide, I will show you how to create an article that is highly informative, organized, and visually appealing.

Disclaimer: This guide is designed for the gameside factbooks, found on your nation page. Some codes and templates do not work well on forumside factbooks, and will not work at all on sites like IIWiki. If you have any questions, please submit them in the thread here. I prefer not to receive telegrams with questions.

SidebarThis is a major part of a wiki factbook. It provides quick facts and statistics about your nation. What to Include

- Nation name and pretitle- Flag- Motto- Anthem Title- Small map or orthographic showing where your nation is located (no details!)- Capital and Largest City- Demonym- Government (e.g., national leader, legislature, etc)- Geographic Statistics (land area, water percentage, etc)- GDP- And more. See my factbook or Wikipedia entries to draw inspiration.

How to make itThe sidebar will be the very first thing in your factbook code. It will involve the use of [box] and [floatright] tags.1) Put a [box] and a [floatright] tag at the beginning of the code.2) Start filling in information! Use small images for your flag and orthographic, and divide each section with underscores or {hr} tags.3) Finish the sidebar with the appropriate end tags.

Title and IntroductionThe title of your factbook is automatically set across the top of the page. There is no way to remove it. If you’d like a second, more colorful title, feel free to add it.

Your introduction section is basically a summary of your nation. The first paragraph is typically a description of where your nation is located, which nations border it, and a list of territories. The second paragraph (often merged with the first) is a brief description of your nation’s geography, usually including land area and population.

The next few paragraphs are often a summary of your nation’s history. If you’re like me and can’t be bothered to write a very detailed history of your nation, leave it all for the body.

The final paragraph of your introduction describes your nation’s position in the present day. It is essentially a ego-rub that brags about your nation’s economic status, positions of world power, and freedoms. If you’d like, you could otherwise use this space to talk about how dirt-poor your nation is. It doesn't matter. Nobody’s going to read it anyway.

Remember, leave details to the body paragraphs!

Table of ContentsIf you want a bit of a challenge, you can add a table of contents to your factbook. This typically comes after your introduction. This involves the use of [anchor] and [url] tags.

1) Write your Table of Contents without any BB code. Just a list format.2) Put [box] and [floatleft] tags at the beginning of the list, and put the necessary / tags at the end of the list.3) Publish your factbook and obtain the url (or internet address). 4) Go back to the editing page. Put [url]tags at the beginning of each item, and paste the url into the tag.5) Add a hashtag and some other word that will identify the part of the wiki that the table of contents will link to. The code for your table of contents should look something like this:

6) Go to each section of your factbook and add [anchor] tags to each section’s title. [anchor=] will allow you to link each section to the table of contents. For example, to link to the table of contents above, use the code below.

BodyThis is going to be the meat of your factbook, where all the tiny details you excluded above will now be recorded. If you have even more in-depth articles, you can add an indented link to your “main article” like so:

The body can really have whatever you want in it. Some popular sections include, in order:

Etymology - This is the origin of your country's name! This section will probably be one of your shortest. Don't forget to add your demonym at the bottom.

History - This will be one of your longest sections. No story is complete unless you start here, but a good place to start might be with the prehistoric tribes in your country's geographic area. Maybe your country exists in a real world place (Ponderosa, for example, is an alternative to what is really the Southwestern US) in which case your history may be largely drawn from real-world history. Or, you might get even more creative, inventing a country in the far future or even in another world entirely! It's all up to you, but no factbook is complete without the History section. Go all out here!

Geography This is a mid-sized section, but it should be pretty easy - especially if your country is located on Earth. Start out with some basic facts about land and water area, which part of the world your country is located, and a short list of its overseas territories and whatnot. Then, go into more depth about all the various regions (the west is dominated by Mediterranean coastline, the north is mostly desert, etc). If you want, include some pictures - a satellite image, perhaps, or photos of various plants and animals. Did I mention that? Climate and wildlife information are good sub-sections for this section.

Demographics - All about people. Begin with some information about population size and estimated growth rates, including immigration effects. Then, add short paragraphs about the composition of your population: race, religion, language, sexual orientation, etc. If you have information about population density and largest cities, it should also go here. Be sure to check the largest cities section of this guide!

Government - A description of your government system. This includes what it is ("The Federation of Trapjackistan is a theocratic dictatorship...") followed by sections on your political divisons, election system, foreign relations, and taxation.

Military - This is often a subsection of your government section. This is often where factbook writers make a huge mistake - they forget that the military section should be a brief overview. Nothing is more annoying then getting a telegram asking me to look at a factbook, only to find that my template has been used as little more than dressing around a main course of enormous photos of military hardware. If you must include a picture, limit yourself to one. Also include information about military size, major divisions (like Air Force or Army, not detailed information about the Twelfth Stormtrooper Platoon ffs), and budget.

Economy - A mid-sized section about your economy. Some questions that should be answered: What economic system does your country use? What's your GDP, and how fast is it growing? Is your country rich or poor? How big is the private sector compared to the public sector? What products do you export, and who do you trade with? Income, poverty, and homelessness are also good sections to have here.

There's lots more you can include. Sections on education, infrastructure, health, science and technology, and culture are good additions to have here. Just have fun with it, and don't feel obligated to write about how the roads are built if you don't want to.

Largest CitiesI have recieved a lot of personal messages about my lovely little city chart, showing off my top ten cities. This was a relatively recent addition to my factbook, and was thus absent from the guide. I will attempt to resolve that problem now. This part of the factbook usually belongs as a subcategory of your Demographics section. If you don't have one of those, make one. Then, make a table. Start with a [table] tag, then begin each row with a [tr] tag. Use the [td] tag for each new column. The columns are where you'll put your data. Finish each column with a {/td} tag after each column, {/tr} at the end of each row, and {/table} at the end of the whole table. If that was too confusing, a helpful template is included below.

ImagesI've received several questions on how to post images in your factbook, and I will attempt to answer them. You will need to upload your images to an image-sharing site, such as Photobucket, Tinypic, or Imgur. For the purposes of this guide, I will demonstrate how to use Imgur to upload images.

1) Go to [url=imgur.com].2) Under the "Upload images" header, you will see a link that says "Computer." Click on that.3) A window will open, allowing you to search for and select your file from your computer. Select your file, and click "Open."4) After uploading the image, you will arrive at a new page on which your image is in the center. If you like the image, copy the code under the heading "BBCode (message boards & forums)."5) Paste the code into your factbook.

Now you have your image! However, you may not like the size. Luckily, back on step 4, there is a link in the upper-right that says "Edit image." After clicking that, you can resize your image using the box in the upper-right. Make sure the proportions are locked! Once you've set the image to the preferred size, click "Apply", then "Save."

By the way, the answer to any image question I get (how to make maps, orthographics, flags, whatever) is always just Microsoft Paint. Edit existing images, or make one from scratch. I don't have any special tricks for design, which is why all my designs are very minimalist.

Template Source CodeAs part of this guide, I have included the source code for a wiki factbook template. If you don’t understand this guide, or just don’t want to read it, you can simply copy/paste this template and fill in the information.

The PRETITLE of NATION commonly called NATION, is a GOVERNMENT TYPE in LOCATION. It is bordered on the north by OTHER-NATION, on the south by OTHER-NATION, by the east by OTHER-NATION and on the west by OTHER-NATION. NATION covers LAND AREA square kilometers and has has an estimated population of POPULATION. NATION comprises of NUMBER SUBDIVISIONS and NUMBER TERRITORIES.

A factbook is only one place to find national information, and it's not always the best place. In these threads, you can put bits of national information in large threads where everyone can find it, or discover new information to place in your own factbook.

Since I am obviously stealing Shazbotdom's idea for a list of great threads, he comes first. Shazbotdom has kept an excellent database for links to factbooks and embassy threads, as well as national leaders, capitals, and currencies. This is truly the king of factbook megathreads.

Afalia may have CTE'd, but his legacy lives on. How do I know Ponderosa is a "middle power"? Afalia said it is! Drop by Smoya's new International Power Classification Organisation, fill out the survey and see where you stack up among the world's great powers. Old thread located here.

Who said sports don't matter? They're an excellent way to fill the culture section of your factbook! Take a look at Kannap's list of national sports and learn what other nations do in their spare time.

Don't understand why your embassy can't be a giant fortress of doom equipped with machine guns, Apache helicopters, and nuclear weapons? Euro tells you everything you need to know about embassies and foreign relations in his comprehensive guide on embassies! The best part? You don't even need to click the link! It's right here! Just scroll down!

Last edited by Ponderosa on Tue Nov 10, 2015 4:27 pm, edited 20 times in total.

While there is already a guide to embassies, it really doesn't get to the heart of the issue. While it certainly doesn't hurt to have a guide on the basics of setting up an embassy program on NationStates, there are lots of other issues which need to be considered if realism is going to be a goal (and I feel that it always should be).

In NS, there is no convention that governs embassies and such as there is in the real world. This means that none of the things I say here are hard and fast rules, but they are still worth noting.

Throughout this post, I will use "represented nation" to refer to the nation which established the diplomatic mission and "host nation" to refer to the nation in which the mission is located. For instance, if we look at the United States embassy in Mexico, the US is the represented nation and Mexico is the host nation.

I would also like to point out that I am not an expert or even a student of international law or international relations. I'm sure there are those on NS who could add to this guide or otherwise improve it. If you're one of those people, please comment so that I can make this better.

Contents1 Embassies, Consulates, and the Difference2 International and Diplomatic Law2.1 Diplomatic and Consular Immunity2.2 Extraterritoriality3 Common Mistakes3.1 What an Embassy Does and Does Not Need3.2 As for Consulates...4 RPing Embassies and Consulates4.1 Establishing Diplomatic Missions4.2 An Alternate Approach to Establishing Embassies4.3 Using Your Diplomatic Missions to RP

Embassies, Consulates, and the DifferenceEmbassies and consulates are both types of diplomatic missions. Diplomatic missions are a way for governments to communicate with each other and remain in touch with foreign governments, foreign citizens (public diplomacy) and their own citizens abroad.

The embassy in the centerpiece of the diplomatic campaign from one nation to another. By definition, it is located in the capital city or governmental center so if you're currently offering embassies in a variety of cities– stop. Embassies are run by ambassadors, who are the highest-ranking diplomats that your nation will be sending abroad. The ambassador's job, quite simply, is to represent your government's opinions to the host government. Generally, the embassy will also perform consular roles in the capital city.

Technically, there are two kinds of consulates: consulates-general and plain old consulates. In practice, there is no real difference and the terms only serve to distinguish a consulate located in a major city (e.g., LA or New York in the United States) from one located in a less important one. Consulates-general are headed by consuls-general rather than regular consuls. As you may have guessed by now, consulates are located in non-capital cities where there may be high concentrations of foreign nationals. Generally, this means that consulates are located in major tourism cities. This makes sense because the primary role of a consulate is to help out the represented nation's citizens while they are in the host nation. Consulates do things such as issue visas, replace lost passports, assist foreign nationals who have been arrested and promote trade between the represented nation and the host nation.

To summarize, there are two primary, functional difference between an embassy and a consulate: embassies are in the host nation's capital and conduct both traditional diplomacy and consular business while consulates are located in cities other than the capital and primarily promote trade and work with the represented nation's citizens while they are in the host nation.

EDIT: As Van Luxemburg pointed out to me, consulate-generals sometimes act as the centerpiece of the diplomatic campaign when the host nation is particularly insignificant. VL gave the example of the Netherlands' Honorary Consulate in Azerbaijan which replaces an actual embassy.

International and Diplomatic LawDiplomatic and Consular Immunity

As I mentioned earlier, NS does not have any formal, international agreements that control diplomatic immunity or any other aspect of diplomacy. However, it is still wise to offer diplomatic immunity because 1) it allows you to demand it from other nations and 2) people won't be so nervous about establishing an embassy in your country. It is also wise, of course, to steer clear of embassy programs where diplomatic immunity is not offered because there is nothing stopping the host nation from arresting your ambassador on false charges and holding him indefinitely.

So, we've established that diplomatic immunity is a good thing, but what exactly is it? Let's take a look at US policies on diplomatic immunity...

Subject

May be arrested or detained

Residence may be entered subject to ordinary procedures

May be issued traffic ticket

May be subpoenaed as witness

May be prosecuted

Ambassador or equivalent

No

No

Yes

No

No

Member of embassy administrative or technical staff

No

No

Yes

No

No

Member of embassy service staff

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No for official acts. Otherwise, yes

Career consular officers

Yes, if for a felony and pursuant to a warrant.

Yes

Yes

No, for official acts. Testimony may not be compelled in any case.

No for official acts. Otherwise, yes

Honorary consular officers

Yes

Yes

Yes

No, for official acts. Yes, in all other cases

No for official acts. Otherwise, yes

Consular employees

Yes

Yes

Yes

No, for official acts. Yes, in all other cases

No for official acts. Otherwise, yes

As I said, this table is of real world policies in the United States which are in line with standard diplomatic immunity conventions. Since there are no standards for this kind of stuff in the NS world, this is only a rough guide.

Even though diplomats are protected from prosecution, it doesn't mean that they're totally invincible if they commit a crime. If your nation has a substantial case against someone with diplomatic immunity, you can ask their home state to waive that immunity. If their government does so, you can prosecute them like any other person. If immunity is not waived, you can't take legal action against them but you can declare the offender a persona non grata and expel them from the country. This is not the same as expelling the actual mission.

Extraterritoriality

First off, just say "extraterritoriality" a couple times; it's fun.

Anyway, this is another one of those areas that's pretty sketchy in NS because we have no formalized conventions about how it is handled. In the real world, embassies and consulates are still legally on the soil of the host nation (i.e., they are not the sovereign territory of the native nation) but the host nation's laws generally do not apply. The host nation's authorities also cannot enter the chancery without permission; this sometimes creates sticky situations where a fugitive or refugee will flee into an embassy. How you handle these situations, if they ever arise, is up to you.

Common MistakesWhat an Embassy Needs and Does Not Need

On NS, embassies can get kinda kooky so let's look at some common trouble spots.1. Embassies need security, but not too much. An ambassador is a pretty important person and you need to protect him the course of his official duties. The embassy as a whole is a symbol of your nation abroad and you probably don't want any misfortune to befall it. To keep your ambassador and the embassy safe, you need security, in the form of armed guards. However, you don't need an army to defend the embassy. A handful of soldiers with fairly light weapons (pistols, submachine guns and sometimes assault rifles) is really all you need to keep troublemakers away from your embassy.

Your security forces should never be used to try to fight off the host nation's authorities because, let's face it, that's a losing battle and it will only land you in a world of hurt. Since you won't be fighting national forces, you sure as hell don't need the kind of weapons that you would use against them. Leave the machine guns, sniper rifles and, for the love of god, the missile launchers at home. They have no place with a diplomatic mission.

2. Embassies need a chancery, but not a fortress. A chancery is the physical space that an embassy (the diplomatic mission) operates out of. In the real world, chanceries come in all shapes in sizes and the international influence of the native nation generally dictates the size of the embassy and of the chancery. While a RL superpower such as the USA may have a walled compound as a chancery, most nations don't have anything nearly as grand. If you've every been to Washington DC, perhaps you've seen the streets of rowhouses that act as chanceries for many smaller nations. In NS, most of us are Trinidad and Tobagos, so it isn't really realistic to assign anything larger than a house to anyone but truly powerful nations, close allies and nations with special security needs.

3. Embassies need a staff, but not an army of bureaucrats. As I said above, the number of personnel assigned to a diplomatic mission is generally linked to the influence of the represented nation. A global power will have a much larger staff than a drop in the bucket. I will take this opportunity to remind you that you (and I) are a drop in the bucket. Unless you anticipate needing to conduct a lot of diplomatic business, you can probably make do with less than a dozen staffers.

4. Embassies need transportation, but not a tank brigade. Remember when I told you to cool it with the heavy weapons? The same thing applies with vehicles. You do not need APCs, IFVs, tanks or even military light armored vehicles (e.g., humvees). Your ambassador is also not your head of state: He doesn't need a Rolls Royce or a stretch limo. In fact, if you do give him a stretch limo, you'll probably induce panic attacks among the security staff.

Armored cars (not the kind that valuables are transported in) are, of course, perfectly permissible. After all, ambassadors are worth protecting and an armored BMW doesn't quite say "I'm a militant wacko" like an APC does. I would recommend a couple nicer sedans or SUVs for use by the ambassador and diplomatic staff and a couple SUVs for use by security personnel. Unless you really don't think it's necessary, these vehicles should probably be armored. If you don't feel that your ambassador would be safe with only these precautions, maybe you should rethink establishing an embassy in that specific country.

Helicopters can be used if you want and if the host nation permits it. Of course, you don't need an attack helicopter or anything really huge like a Chinook. For the most part, this helicopter should serve as another way for your ambassador to travel, so you really just need something from a civilian line.

As for Consulates...

I'm not going to do a whole big list for consulates because, honestly, they're not a big deal. Many consulates are located in office buildings and even colleges and universities. Consular staff will generally drive their own personal cars (but with diplomatic plates) and the security staff will be very small and lightly armed if it exists at all. So, if your consulates are located in gated compounds with a fleet of armored vehicles and are guarded by soldiers with assault rifles, something is seriously wrong.

RPing Embassies and ConsulatesEstablishing Diplomatic Missions

If you've ever looked through Factbooks and National Information (the fact that you're reading this suggests that you have), you will have noticed the many embassy programs. Now, to be honest, most of this are pretty awful: They might post a couple lines of introduction, then they'll give an application form and when people apply, they'll simply respond with "Approved." This is no way to be conducting diplomacy.

First off, you should say a little bit about your nation just so people know what they're getting into. Secondly (this is important and often overlooked), you need to give your nation's policies on diplomatic immunity and extraterritoriality. If I'm applying for an embassy, I want to know if you can barge into my embassy and arrest my ambassador whenever you want. You also need to discuss your policies on staff (can people send 100 staffers or just ten?), security (are fifty guards with machine guns alright?) and transportation (how would you feel if someone wanted to send a dozen cars and three Blackhawks?). You should also note any local laws or intolerances that may be important.

You should also provide a list or description of the locations available. If you're feeling ambitious, you could map them out. Remember, not every nation needs a giant chancery.

Of course, you also need the actual application form. Here's the form I use for my embassy program. I would appreciate it if you didn't steal it, but I have a feeling that some people will anyway.

National Information:- Full Name of Nation:- Government Type:- Head of State:- Head of Government:- Minister of Foreign Affairs or Equivalent:

Ambassadorial Information:- Ambassador's Name:- Ambassador's Family (if any):- Are there any health of security issues local authorities should be alerted of?

Locational Information:Please place any special requests in the "Second Choice Location" field and justify them in the field directly below it. Please make only realistic requests and be prepared to pay any fees associated with the design, construction or maintenance of special requests.- First Choice Location:- Second Choice Location:- If requesting an embassy in the hills or making a special request, why do you feel this is necessary?

Staff and Equipment Information:Please remember, limousines, armed/military vehicles, machine guns, explosives, riot gear and armor-piercing weapons are prohibited. We ask that you limit employment based on the guidelines above.- Diplomatic Staff:- Security Staff:- Service Staff:- Will you be hiring locally?- Number and Type of Weapons:- Number and Type of Vehicles:

Miscellaneous:- Would you like us to establish an embassy in your nation?- Do you have any special requests?- Would you like to enter into trade/treaty talks?- Is there any additional information we should know?- Please declare any drugs, alcohol, animals or plants you are bringing into the country.

After people have applied and you have accepted them, you should add them to a running list of diplomatic missions in your country.

An Alternate Approach to Establishing Embassies

As Valipac pointed out, you don't necessarily have to RP the establishment of an diplomatic mission in an embassy program thread. In the real world, just about every nation has an embassy with just about every other. While, in the NS world, this may not be possible because there are so many nations, it's certainly safe to assume that you have more embassies both within your nation and abroad than your actual post archive would suggest. To quote Valipac directly, "some nations choose not to participate in embassy exchange threads, but rather assume that all nations have traded embassies with them." If you want to take this approach with some or all nations, it's certainly alright. However, if you want to use a diplomatic mission that you did not RP establishing, you should TG the host nation first just to make sure that they're alright with it.

Using Your Diplomatic Missions to RP

Many people, after establishing an embassy, don't do anything with it. There's nothing horribly wrong with this as, after all, you won't have business to conduct with every nation that you establish an embassy with. However, embassies are more fun if you do something with them. Options range from the nice and elegant (dinner parties, balls) to the more action-packed (hostage situations, terrorist attacks). In any diplomatic crisis, you shouldn't forget your embassies; closing one down is a great way to show that you're displeased.

Last edited by Euroslavia on Fri Sep 06, 2013 4:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

"More than anyone, I desire to see America fashioned into the greatest nation in the world, greatest not so much by virtue of her area and wealth as by her freedom and glory."~Simón Bolívar; padre y espíritu de Wagondia

Honor the Fallen: Rest in Peace Army Master Sgt. Jonathan Dunbar of Austin, TX, killed in service of his country 3/30/18God blessthe United Statesof America

I had been planning on rewriting my factbook, which has seriously needed a facelift since I first wrote it back in 2009, and recently got motivated to do so again. This guide will definitely save me the effort I knew was in front of me, so hat's off to you for taking the time.

Transferring information from disorganized notes into presentable factbooks is way too time consuming for a procrastinator. Just ask if you have questions.

Plutocratic Evil Empire™ situated in a post-apocalyptic Decopunk North America. Extreme PMT, yet socially stuck in the interwar/immediate post-war era, with Jazz music and flapper culture alongside nanotechnology and Martian colonies. Tier I power of the Frencoverse.